Abortion can only be justified in extreme circumstances(such as the mother's life), hun. Not even Rape, incest, or Backalley abortions can justify it. Abortion is immoral and dangerous in every situation. Plus, all the woman has to do is go to the doctor and get the semen removed from her uterus to completely rid herself from ever having a problem. It's simple to solve.

You know that you can get cancer from abortions? Remember that. Also, rape victems (in a study) are found to have a better time getting over sexual assult with a baby than without. 2 wrongs don't make a right.

This is a such debatable topic, but you expressed your opinion very well here. Good job on that.

I'm not religious. I happen to be a vegetarian because I don't feel right about killing living creatures. But I am pro-choice when it comes to this subject, for reasons you mentioned in this poem. I wish there was no such thing as rape, incest, etc., but sadly they exist. Sometimes, abortion would benefit both the unborn child and the carrier. I could go on and on explaining what I meant, but it's going to take awhile. So I'll end now.

Raekwon the Kid chapter 1 . 7/23/2003

Far be it for me to sound disrespectful, but to say that men are unqualified to discuss this issue just becuase of their gender is erroneous; that would be just like someone saying that whites can't say "nigger" just becuase they're white, or that blacks can't talk about the Columbine incident just because it didn't involve anyone black. Both claims are eqaully as ridiculous.

As for my view on abortion, I agree with you; it shouldn't be used as an alternative for using condoms. However, I don't think that cases of rape/incest are all that justified because even though the parent(s) didn't ask for the baby to be conceived, the child didn't ask to be conceived, either. To me, at the end of the day, it's still killing an innocent child.

I agree with what you're saying... I think your opinion is all the more valid because you've been faced with the choice of weather or not to abort your child. Myself? I don't have sex. I think that if you don't want a child (Which I don't. I don't care much for children.), sex isn't a very good thing to do. I'm a Wiccan, and the religion as a whole dosen't have any hard or fast rules on abortion, though some other Wiccans I know oppose the people who go and protest against it. I decided that when I first entered high school (Where sex, in my school, is the 'cool' thing to do), if I ever decided to have sex with someone (Which still hasen't happened, and is looking as though it wont. I'm happy with that.) that I would use contraception and take no chances with pregnancy. I also decided that if I still managed to get pregnant I would abort the child. Now in my senior year, I still believe in what I decided back in the ninth grade. ...Anyways, I've gone on long enough, you've written a wonderful essay and I hope many people read it. ...Congratulations on your baby, by the way.

I totally agree with your points view on when abortion is and is not acceptable. I'm also Christian, but more than that, I'm Catholic and we really get a bad wrap because of some bigots who bomb clinics. It's like they don't even try to understand anyone else's views.

Good well-written essay (maybe I say that cause I agree with it :) ). And I'm sorry that you had to go through making the difficult choice, but at least you're using the experience to learn from and do something positive.

Well, personally I'm on the pro-choice side (though thankfully the legality of abortion isn't the hysterical issue in Britain it is in come of the US), but it is indeed a very hard issue.

One thing I would take you up on, though: it's true that as a man I'll never have to make that decision, but I don't accept that that makes me unqualified to talk about it. Saying that you can only discuss an issue if you have personally experienced its effects is, frankly, silly. Going on that argument, no white person should be allowed to discuss racism, for example.

James Jago chapter 1 . 7/15/2003

I see your reasoning, but frankly I have no business holding or expressing a view on this issue. I'm a man. What the hell do I know about this?